digital marketing & revenue generation: a framework for accountable marketing
DESCRIPTION
In today’s digital marketing landscape there are no more excuses. Gone are the days where we would buy ads and hope for the best. Today, we have access to data that marketers could have only wished for a few years ago. As a result, CEOs now want marketers to become 100% ROI-focused. Unfortunately less than 1 in 3 companies are able to properly calculate marketing ROI. In this guide we look at the Accountable Marketing Methodology that we developed at Complexant to provide you with a structured approach to work from and build upon. Any marketing department can use this methodology to go from a traditional or lead-gen focused marketing organisation to an accountable, revenue-focused marketing organisation. We will look at: - How the Media Landscape has changed and how that affects the role of marketing. - The CAM Methodology for Accountable Marketing. - The Four Revenue Pillars and 5 Revenue Milestones. - Why (new) Digital Marketing tactics aren't the answer. While each and every organisation is unique and the scope of this guide only scratches the surface of the overall revenue marketing discussion - we hope you will find it valuable as a reference point to build upon when your formulating your own plans. For more stuff like this visit our blog at http://www.complexant.comTRANSCRIPT
DIGITAL MARKETING & REVENUEGENERATION
WHAT THE CMO NEEDS TO KNOW SERIES
COMPLEXANT
A Framework for Accountable Marketing
A publication by
FREE GUIDE
Contents.01. About the author.02. Introduction.03. The CAM Methodology.04. Analysis.05. Strategy.
06. Education.07. Execution. 08. In Conclusion.09. It’stimeforachange.
About The Author.Sharif Khalladi is the founder of Complexant. He is also an award-winning entrepreneur, international keynote speaker, consultant and the author of The Social Executive.
Over the last decade, Sharif has collaborated with businesses varying from solo enterprises to multi-billion dollar corporations to create value and then market, sell,deliverandprofitfromthatvaluecreationwhilegrowingandstrengtheningtheir market position.
Industry leaders such as Cisco, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Canon Europe, T-Mobile,MitsubishiandYamahaMotorshavecapitalizedonSharif’sideasandstrategies, successfully integrating them into their business with profound and consistent results.
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LET’SCONNECT
Introduction.Intoday’sdigitalmarketinglandscapetherearenomoreexcuses. Gone are the days where we would buy ads and hope for the best. Today, we have access to data that marketers could have only wished for a few years ago.
With the rise of social networks, the mobile web and the adoption of multiple devices customer behaviour has changed dramatically as well. They now live at the intersection of paid, owned and earned media in what is often referred to as converged media.
Where at one point in time there was a clear differentiation between paid media (i.e. traditional advertising), owned media (i.e. your company website) and earned media (i.e. press coverage in a trade publication) we have now seen those borders fade.
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The Converged Media Landscape
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PAID MEDIA OWNED MEDIA
EARNED MEDIA
CONVERGEDMEDIA
Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are now all-in-one paid, owned and earnedmedia.Anditseemslikethecustomerdoesn’treallycarewhatiswhatanymore. They decide how they experience the new media landscape. They access the web on their smartphone, tablet and desktop computers. They use mobile apps, social media dashboards and “readers” to syndicate content fromamultitudeofchannels.Theyconsume,filter,curateandshare.Theyareconverged.
And we are left playing catch up. Unless we evolve with them. Unless we become accountable.
As a result, CEOs now want marketers to become 100% ROI-focused. Unfortunately less than 1 in 3 companies are able to properly calculate marketing ROI.
02
“3 out of 4 CEOs want
marketers to become 100% ROI-focused.”
- Eloqua
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Organisations must learn how to tap into this converged media landscape and educate themselves through the proper capture and use of data and then build their strategy around the insights that come from it. More than ever, there is a needforeducation,bothinternallyandexternally.Andfinally,withmorechannelsthanever,weneedtoexecutemoreefficiently.
Many companies are stuck in what I like to call the “branding trap” - where failed attempts to generate revenue (or even leads) through marketing are reframed as successes where the objective somehow became building awareness instead of contributing to the company revenue. Vanity metrics such as site visits and potentialreacharecelebrateduntilatonepointweseemforgetwhatwe’reevendoing: building a business.
Luckily there is another way.
02
“Organisations must learn how to tap into this
converged media land-
scape.”
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In this guide we look at the Accountable Marketing Methodology that we developed at Complexant to provide you with a structured approach to work from and build upon. Any marketing department can use this methodology to go from a traditional or lead-gen focused marketing organisation to an accountable, revenue-focused marketing organisation.
We’lllookatthefourRevenuePillars:Analysis,Strategy,EducationandExecutionand how each of them plays a crucial role in the accomplishment of this objective.
Eventhoughwe’vedevelopedthemethodologyfromamacroperspective(lookingat the overall digital marketing landscape, where we feel it can have the biggest impact),itcanjustaseasilybeappliedtospecificmarketinginitiativesonamicrolevel such as individual campaigns, launches, events or in marketing areas such as Social Media Marketing or Search Engine Optimization.
02
“Less than 1/3 of companies
properly calculate
marketing ROI.”- Eloqua
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While each and every organisation is unique and the scope of this guide only scratches the surface of the overall revenue marketing discussion - we hope you willfinditvaluableasareferencepointtobuilduponwhenyourformulatingyourown plans.
I’dlovetohearaboutyourresults-goodluck!
Sharif KhalladiSharif KhalladiFounder, Complexant
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LET’SCONNECT
COMPLEXANTACCOUNTABLE MARKETING METHODOLOGY
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The CAM Methodology
Our methodology is based on four “Revenue Pillars” (Analysis, Strategy, Education and Execution) that marketing teams must go through to evolve into a revenue-focused marketing organisation. On the bottom we list focus areas that come into play in each pillar. (Note that some focus areas may be relevant to multiple pillars.)
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The circles that run through the pillars can be seen as the milestones that they support. For example, in the analysis pillar, our milestone is to know what works so that we can plan better. In the execution pillar, our milestone is to achieve our envisioned results so that we can report them back to the business.
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Less than 40% of companies use marketing analytics, yet a detailed examination of all available data (both internal (i.e. web analytics) and external (i.e. competitive data)) is crucial in developing a solid digital marketing strategy.
A lot of companies look at bits and pieces of data across multiple silos, for example “search data” and “social data”.
Properanalysisconsistsnotonlyofcapturingdataacrossthesesilo’s,butalsothe proper interpretation of that data, answering the questions: “what does this really mean?” and “what can we do next?”.
The inability to interpret this data properly leads to the lack of data use in digital marketing efforts and thus limited results and lost opportunities.
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The First Revenue Pillar Analysis.
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In our methodology, analysis is the starting point. We recommend looking at data across the following areas: web and content, search, social, competitors / market andwhereapplicableofflinechannelsaswell.
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SEARCH DATA
SEO/SEM AGENCY
WEB DATA+
CREATIVE AGENCY
SOCIAL DATA+
SOCIAL AGENCY
COMPETITOR DATA+
MARKET ANALYST
CUSTOMER DATA=
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The Second Revenue Pillar Strategy.
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According to recent studies, 80 percent of marketers incorrectly begin with tactics instead of goals. Many organizations move from launch to launch and campaign to campaignwithouttakingthetimetoreflectorproperlydefiningadigitalmarketingstrategy, let alone a data-driven and goal oriented strategy. We believe this is a critical error, yet an understandable one in a marketing organisation where the proper use of data is not yet embraced.
The digital marketing strategy should be dictated by and aimed towards supporting the overall mission of the company, and its business goals. It should consistofawelldefinedsub-setmarketingobjectivesandtheagreeduponmetricstomeasureprogress.Thedigitalmarketingstrategyalsodefinesthescope, chosen execution channels, tactics and resource allocation.
It’sneedlesstosaythatthestrategybuildsupontheconclusionsfoundintheanalysis pillar and should be data-driven.
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Themarketingdepartmentisnotafactorythatisbuilttoexecutecampaigns.It’sacommunity that, when it thrives, builds your brand and grows your company.
A community that is driven by employees, the most valuable asset any company has.
Yet most organisations move from the strategy pillar straight into the execution pillar, without investing (enough) in education.
They are not realizing how much of a limiting factor this is. It leads to the type of scenarios where companies are “doing social” rather than “being social”, to give an example.
This is also where challenges in adoption of certain new ideas in the business are born as there is no true understanding of the “why”. You start hearing things like: “why are we doing this again?” in the hall ways and at the coffee machine.
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The Third Revenue Pillar Education.
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By educating and investing in your teams, things like adoption, engagement and excitement become natural and the entire business thrives. Education breeds understanding. Understanding is at the core of a healthy company culture. And culture is a key component of any thriving community.
This is why our third revenue pillar is Education.
Educate executives so that employees have role models and are inspired top down. Arrange for team trainings so that everyone understands the “why”. Develop self service platforms so that employees are able to invest in themselves. And invest in continuous upskilling so that your organisation can lead the way instead of fall behind. Proper education leads to execution without effort.
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07
All the data, the most comprehensive digital strategy and highly educated teams won’tdoyourorganisationanygoodunlessthereisawelloiledexecutionmachine in place as well.
By developing and implementing proper execution frameworks and processes and by having the right tools and support systems in place execution becomes more efficientandeffective.
Efficiencyfreesuptimeforproperreflectionandreportingandenablesyourorganisation to continuously optimize and improve. In our methodology, execution is supported by data, strategy and educated teams towards the accomplishment ofproperlydefinedbusinessobjectives.
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The Fourth Revenue Pillar Execution.
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This guide is about remembering. About pausing for a moment and looking atwhatwe’redoing.Toask:“Asmarketers,arewetrulyaddingvaluetothebusiness?”
You might have noticed that even though the implementation of this methodology inyourorganisationisaimedtowardsincreasingcompanyrevenues,wehaven’tspokenaboutrevenueorspecifictacticstoincreaserevenuedirectly.
Wedon’thaveto,andquitefrankly,weshouldn’t.
Imagine, for a moment, that you were suffering from chest discomfort and decided itwouldbewisetovisitacardiologist.Beforeyouevensitdowninheroffice,shesays:“Ah-ha!Howaboutwedosomeendoscopicvesselharvesting,thatshouldsortyourightout.JustfollowmetotheO.R.andwe’llstarttheprocedurerightaway!”
Youwouldverylikelygetthehelloutofthere!
08In Conclusion.
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Why is it then that so many marketers straight go into the O.R. and start “doing stuff”?Howcanitbethatsomanymarketershavenodefinedmarketingstrategyin place? Why is it that so few marketers actually use marketing data in their campaign efforts?
Itdoesn’tceasetoamazeme.
Before we can discuss tactics we must have our house in order. The methodology shared in this guide provides you with a framework to do just that. I hope it serves as inspiration and I highly recommend you apply it to your own situation.
Andwhenyoudo,letusknow!
Sharif KhalladiSharif KhalladiFounder, Complexant
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It’s Time for a Change.At Complexant, we help companies drive and gain insight into the revenue contribution of marketing.
We do this through comprehensive analysis, data-driven strategy, education and execution support across the digital marketing landscape.
Talk to a Complexant specialist to learn how you we can help your marketing organisation evolve to the next level, click here to contact us today.
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Measuring Social MediaFour Metrics That Matter
Download your complimentary copy of “Measuring Social Media, Four Metrics that Matter” and learn:
- What all of these fans and followers mean to the business. - The two types of metrics that should be monitored. - Calculating the economic value of social media efforts. - The importance of gathering cross-channel data and avoidingdatasilo’s.
Download your complimentary copy today!
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